Cuba has confirmed the deaths of 32 of its nationals, who were described by the government as part of the island’s armed forces and intelligence services, during a U.S. operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. In response to this loss, Cuba has declared two days of national mourning to honor the deceased.

The Cuban government has not disclosed the specific locations where these personnel were stationed during the raid. However, their deaths have reignited attention on the long-standing reports and international investigations that have highlighted Cuba’s covert involvement in Venezuela’s military and intelligence sectors.

Venezuelan political analyst Jorge Jraissati emphasized the significant role Cuba’s intelligence has played in consolidating power for Hugo Chávez and subsequently Nicolás Maduro. “Cuba is often seen as the primary intelligence provider for Venezuela, influencing areas such as election management, diplomatic relations, and maintaining control over security forces,” Jraissati explained to Fox News Digital.

In a show of solidarity, Cubans displayed a Venezuelan flag alongside a Cuban one during a rally in Havana on January 3, 2026, supporting Nicolás Maduro after his capture by U.S. forces. President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had apprehended Maduro following airstrikes on Caracas and other cities, marking the dramatic end to a prolonged standoff between Trump and his Venezuelan adversary.

Jraissati further mentioned that any potential transition in Venezuela would necessitate collaboration between the American government and the Venezuelan populace to curb the extensive Cuban influence over Venezuela’s state mechanisms and broader society.

An investigation by Reuters in August 2019 revealed that two confidential agreements signed in 2008 had granted Cuba extensive access to Venezuela’s military and intelligence services. These agreements allowed Cuban officials to train Venezuelan troops, reorganize intelligence agencies, and develop an internal surveillance system aimed at overseeing Venezuela’s military activities, according to the report.

Those arrangements played a central role in transforming Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency — the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) — into a force designed to detect dissent, instill fear within the ranks and ensure loyalty to the government, the investigation found.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president, right, greets Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba’s president, during the 23rd States of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) Summit at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. The alliance of leftist countries in the region are meeting to reject the US’s reimposed oil sanctions on Venezuela, ending a six-month reprieve for the Maduro regime. 

The findings were later echoed by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which said it reviewed a 2008 memorandum of understanding between Cuba and Venezuela. The U.N. mission reported that the agreement provided for Cuban advisory oversight in the restructuring of Venezuelan military intelligence, including the creation of new agencies, training of counterintelligence officers and assistance with surveillance and infiltration techniques.

Former Venezuelan officials cited by Havana Times and El Toque have described Cuban advisers embedded across some of the country’s most sensitive institutions, including the civilian intelligence service SEBIN, DGCIM, the defense ministry, ports and airports and Venezuela’s national identification system.

Human rights organizations and international investigators say those structures were central to the government’s response to mass protests in 2014 and 2017, when Venezuelan security forces carried out widespread arrests and deadly crackdowns on demonstrators.

The U.N. fact-finding mission documented patterns of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention and torture, and reported that Cuban advisers helped train Venezuelan personnel in methods used to track, interrogate and repress political opponents.

Experts say Cuba’s admission that its military and intelligence personnel were killed during a U.S. operation inside Venezuela has sharpened focus on the alliance’s true depth, turning years of documentation into an immediate geopolitical issue.